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That the native race was now nearly extinct on Salisbury 

 Plain, is shown by the following letter, written in 1801-1802, 

 and communicated by Mr. John Britton : 



" A man, about 4 o'clock of a fine morning in June, 

 1801, was coming on horseback from Tinhead to Tilshead. 

 While at, or near, an enclosure called Asking's Penning, 

 one mile from the village of Tilshead, he saw over his head, 

 about sixty yards high, as near as he could estimate, a large 

 bird, which afterwards proved to be a Bustard. The bird 

 alighted on the ground immediately before the horse, which 

 it indicated a disposition to attack, and in fact very soon 

 began the onset. The man alighted, and getting hold of 

 the bird endeavoured to secure it ; and after struggling with 

 it nearly an hour he succeeded, and brought it to Mr. 

 J. Bartley, of Tilshead, to whose house he was going. Not 

 knowing the value of such a bird, he offered it to Mr. 

 Bartley as a present ; but Mr. Bartley declined to accept it 

 as such, though he much wished to have it, and after 

 repeated solicitations prevailed on the man to receive for it 

 a small sum, with which he was perfectly satisfied. During 

 the first week that Mr. Bartley had this bird in his posses- 

 sion it was not known to eat anything ; however, at length 

 it became very tame, and would at last receive its food from 

 its patron's hands, but still continued shy in the presence of 

 strangers. Its principal food was birds, chiefly sparrows, 

 which it swallowed whole in the feathers with a great deal 

 of avidity. The flowers of charlock and the leaves of rape 

 formed also other parts of its food. Mice it would likewise 

 eat, and in short almost any other animal substance. The 

 food on passing into the stomach was observed to go round 

 the back part of the neck. 



" Mr. Bartley is of opinion that the idea of the Bustard's 

 drinking is erroneous; in support of which he says, that 

 during the time this Bustard was in his possession, which 

 was from June till the August following, it had not a drop 

 of water given it, after two or three weeks at first. This 

 fact he considers as a proof that the generally-received 

 opinion of a Bustard's drinking is untrue. This bird was 



